finally decided it was time for a new mousepad; mine was two years old and starting to disintegrate
chose a Razer Sphex v2; imo, it looks interesting and was only 16 dollars off Amazon
It's a massive difference from my old 5 dollar mouspad; the size and overall 'glidiness' allows me to drop DPI from 1600 to 500, which feels so much nicer in Rainbow Six Siege; after getting used to the change, it's so much more comfortable than before